Official site for the high/dark fantasy books of authors Barb Hendee and J. C. Hendee, including the Noble Dead Saga (a.k.a. The Noble Dead series), the Mist-Torn Witches series, the Vampire Memories series, and TNDS: Tales from the world of the Noble Dead Saga.

Win a copy of S2B3: Of Truth and Beasts (hardcover)

To celebrate the coming January release of S3B1: Between Their Worlds, and the beginning of Phase/Series 3 of the Noble Dead Saga, our publisher has asked us to run an online raffle. [Open only to participants in the USA.]

Starting each Tuesday for the next six weeks, we will announce the opening of a raffle for one of six hardcopy editions of S2B3: Of Truth and Beasts. Please note that all books will be sent directly from the publisher; Barb and J.C. are not be able to sign them. After the announcement via NobleDead.org (echoed to all subscribers and venues linked to our site’s RSS newsfeed), anyone in the USA can enter by submitting the following information through the site’s Contact page:

NOTE: Barb and J.C. have full control of all participant information; you will not be added to any form of mailing list.

The following Monday, one random winner will be notified via email and announced (by name only) through the site and its newsfeed. Winners may not re-enter a following contest, as we want to spread the prizes around. The publisher will be notified as well, and the winner can expect to receive the prize within 2 to 4 weeks.

Let the fun begin! The first week’s raffled is now open. All entries must be made by Sunday 12/04/2011, midnight, Pacific Standard Time.

A lot of people have a story they want to tell, but it takes more than this to see it in a bookstore… or as an ebook via one of the online versions of a “big box” store. As a rough guess, maybe 1 in 10 people want to write down that story. A tenth of those do so, and a tenth of those finish the first draft. Maybe another tenth learn to refine it adequately, and again a tenth will get to the point of publishing it somehow. But the possibility of it being produced by a professional publishing house gets even smaller. Still, with 300,000,000+ people in the USA at present, those fractions only bring us down to 30,000 potential story-tellers who get something in print each year. That’s a lot more than actually make it to the final step…

It’s time again for the harvest feast in the USA, which is late compared to other corners of the world. It’s when we all try to remember something for which to give thanks, regardless of spiritual ideology or philosophy.

At a professional level, in relation to the Noble Dead Saga, we have people abroad who deserve that as well...

Many people who end up wanting to be writers, or specifically authors, don’t start out that way. Life leads them down wandering paths, and along the journey to building a life is when such things begin to ferment. It could (and should) be said that story-making and story-telling are two different things. For an anyone working in any medium of expression, prose or otherwise, these are two different talents. When they are refined into skill sets, they must be integrated at the most intimate as well as pragmatic levels. That’s quite a feat, and some who don’t end up as “story-tellers” nonetheless begin early in life as “story-makers”… and they may not even know it…

And we’re back again after a slight delay, though a little earlier in the catch-up than previously announced. Sometimes (as you’ve seen in our previous Q&As) the line between the perspective of readers and writers isn’t distinct. The interests of one audience leads to the other, and visa versa. So it is, this time out, with a peek into the past. Appropriate considering that this coming January 2012, with the release of S3B1: Between Their Worlds, we’ll be ten years into the saga from the readers’ side, and over twelve years for us on the writers’ side…

The latest Q&A is running late (as it should have been up this last Friday) because we've been at it hard working on the S3B2: The Dog in the Dark even as we're all waiting for S3B1: Between Their Worlds to hit the shelves. Oh, and we have to prepare for a signing tomorrow evening. The next Q&A entry should be ready and published by Monday afternoon (PST). We'll be back on schedule for this series by the following Friday.

We heard that the Excerpts in the Books page ceased functioning. This may have happened over a week ago during some site work. All has been corrected, so if you dropped by during the last week for a read, give it another try now.

It’s finally here… the back cover summary for the beginning of Series 3 of the Noble Dead Saga. Select “Books” from the site’s main menu and then select “Series 3, Book 1, Between Their Worlds” in the right-hand menu on that page.

That is the last info about the book that can be released, as we all wait until January 3rd, 2012, when the book appears on the shelves. Pre-orders are available at all online venues. Links to some of those are available within the book’s information on our site. Magiere, Leesil and Chap are back!

Time once again for a couple of questions and answers. This time out, we’ll cover two related ones on a topic that often gets raised for us. As you’ll see, these questions are ones only a handful of writers could really address. No wonder they are among the top three we’re always asked.

News linkage options for readers and other visitors have received a small update; look to the sidebar of our site(s). If you already chose your preferred method to receive our updates, you do not need to make any changes. More such convenience tweaks (and expansion of options) are planned for the near future. Stay tuned.